“Come on, Rex,” I muttered under my breath as I continued to pull on the bond, feeling it slowly start to grow tighter as I worked. I needed him to respond, to be okay. “Come back to me.”
I nearly gave up. The distance was too great, the bond too stretched. I turned to face my mother in defeat, ready to sob in her arms, when I felt the lightest tug on the other end of the bond.
“Do you feel your alpha?” my mother asked, seeing my change in expression.
I nodded a sudden smile filling my face. “I believe so!”
I began pulling on the bond with renewed vigor. Rex must have been doing the same because it grew tighter on both ends until it snapped to attention and I could feel all of his pain and grief, but also a sudden wave of hope.
The clock began to glow, letting me know that my voice was doing his part.
I looked over at my mother, committing her face to memory. “I love you, Mama,” I said again for the last time.
My mother’s mouth wobbled, but she leaned forward to press a kiss to my forehead. “We will meet again, my darling, I can feel it in my bones.”
I nodded, suddenly feeling reluctant to leave her so soon.
“Go, Juneau, your pack is waiting for you.” My mother gave me a gentle push toward the clock.
I gave her one last smile before I turned and pressed my hand to the clock face.
Then 1915 disappeared and I was falling through the blackness again.
‘I have to leave you now, Juneau,’the voice whispered in the wind that whipped around me.
‘To find your omega?’I asked, seeing the tiny pinpoint of light that was the future far off in the distance.
‘Yes, I need her.’The voice was growing softer.
‘Well I hope you are able to find her… say, you’ve never once told me your name, have you?’I don’t know why I’d never asked it before, but I was curious to know the name of the person who had changed my life so drastically.
The voice chuckled and it echoed in the darkness as the pinpoint of light grew bigger and bigger as I hurtled toward it.
‘I am known by many names, but my friends call me Merlin,’he said, his voice almost completely faded.‘I hope you enjoy your life to the fullest, Juneau, live it well.’
Those were his last words before the darkness opened and I was suddenly once again falling into the arms of my alpha. I just hoped he wouldn’t drop me this time.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Thesoundofmuffledshouting was the first thing I heard as consciousness returned to me. The back of my head ached as if someone had slammed it into the floor… and then I remembered ithadbeen slammed into the floor by a very pissed off Orpheus.
When he’d dragged me with him into the storage room I panicked. The last time I was in a room with him was two years ago and all I did then was try not to move. I was saved by my pack last time, but I’d known that they probably weren’t going to be able to save me again. I refused to let Orpheus do what he wanted without a fight, so when he slid a hand under my shirt I turned my head and bit the shit out of his arm.
I hazily remembered the way he’d screamed and slammed my head into the floor.
“Couldn’t just lie still like the maggot you are, could you?” Orpheus’s burnt coffee scent had filled my nose and I gagged as bile rose in my throat. “I’m going to make it so you never forget me, and then I’m going to go back into the bar and blow the brains out of all of those fucking alphas of yours.”
He cut my shirt down the middle and brought the tip of his knife to my chest, just above my nipples. “You’re going to wish my mother named me something shorter by the end of this,” his words came out on the tail end of a deranged giggle.
Then he pressed the knife into my skin and began to carve.
“O,” he said as he began to spell his name, rounding out crude letters on my body.
I passed out cold by the time he made it to the H.
“Podcast, sweet love, I need you to open your eyes,” Doc’s voice sounded far away as he spoke.
My body felt stiff and heavy, like it was being weighed down by sandbags. It took me another minute to realize that it was being weighed down by something.
